The Dog Stays. We’ll See About the Stuff.

Slide Show | The Hunt: His and Hers A couple weeds out what isn’t needed and won’t fit into their new Upper East Side rental.

Hiroko Masuike / The New York Times

March 7, 2013

The Hunt

By JOYCE COHEN

When Matt Kroll moved to the city after graduating from Colgate University, he lived with roommates in a three-bedroom duplex in the East 70s, paying $1,250 a month for a large bedroom with an en-suite bathroom and four closets. The situation, as well as the vast amount of space, “worked out seamlessly,” Mr. Kroll said.

Then, two and a half years ago, he met Catherine Kellogg, a co-worker at a technology staffing firm. She lived in a large two-bedroom in a new Central Harlem rental building with her sister and her beloved dog, Sasha. Her half of the rent was $1,025 a month.

“The apartment was not, from what I’ve learned, a standard New York apartment,” she said. “It was a real apartment.” Ms. Kellogg, a minimalist about everything except shoes, didn’t need all the space she had.

Last fall, Mr. Kroll and Ms. Kellogg, who are both in their mid-20s, decided to hunt for a rental to share. “We wanted a one-bedroom that was built more for a couple,” Mr. Kroll said. “Most all of my friends had one-bedrooms for one person.”

East 90th The building, Century Tower, was new and cool, but a one-bedroom apartment there was too small.

Hiroko Masuike / The New York Times

Ms. Kellogg was especially concerned about closet space because Mr. Kroll, who is from Armonk, N.Y., had a lot of stuff. She herself had moved to New York from Albuquerque with just three suitcases.

They needed a place on the ground floor or an elevator building, too, for 12-year-old Sasha, who has hip trouble. Their budget was around $2,500 a month. Their target area was the Upper East Side.

Mr. Kroll, who now works at 10gen, a tech start-up, had more flexible hours than Ms. Kellogg, who now is a nanny for a family on the Upper West Side. So he spearheaded the hunt, taking videos to show her suitable places.

The first candidate he saw, for $2,650 a month, came close. It was a sublet in Century Tower, an amenity-loaded condominium at 90th Street and First Avenue. To Ms. Kellogg, the building seemed like a five-star hotel. But the one-bedroom, not quite 600 square feet, was on the small side.

East 87th This time, the size of the place was right, but not its location near Second Avenue subway construction.

Hiroko Masuike / The New York Times

“I tried not to let that deter me because I was coming from such a big apartment,” she said. But it was hard to imagine fitting in all of Mr. Kroll’s possessions, which included two couches.

It was also far from the subway, and the first apartment they saw. They had plenty of time.

Soon, Mr. Kroll found a large place — 850 square feet — in a co-op building on 87th Street and Second Avenue. Rent was $2,850 a month, with utilities included. Second Avenue’s ongoing subway construction didn’t bother him.

But it was a deal-breaker for Ms. Kellogg. In her Harlem place, construction jolted her awake at 6:30 a.m. “My tolerance for construction was very small,” she said. “The apartment was roomy, but that was really the only benefit.”

Mr. Kroll encountered too many “smaller one-bedrooms built for one person,” he said. So the couple decided they were willing to pay more for a place they really liked. And, Mr. Kroll said, it occurred to him that “to get what you truly want, you are probably going to need professional help. I realized I was better off sucking it up and getting ready to pay a broker’s fee.”

East 58th The ground-floor location was good for the dog, for whom stairs were out, but the one-bedroom was too small.

Hiroko Masuike / The New York Times

Through nakedapartments.com, he contacted Freddy Pichardo, then an agent at Anchor Associates and now with the Hecht Group. The challenges Mr. Pichardo said, were the large dog and “the closet space he was looking for.” He took Mr. Kroll to a rental building on East 96th Street. But the $2,595-a-month apartment, which they had thought was on the ground floor, turned out to be in the basement, near the trash area. Mr. Kroll said no.

Next up was a beautifully renovated one-bedroom for $2,500 a month, on the ground floor of a small building on East 58th Street near Sutton Place. Sasha could manage the stoop, which had just a few steps. But the apartment had only 650 square feet and limited closet space.

The same day, Mr. Pichardo turned up a new listing in the building with the basement apartment. This one, for $2,725 a month, was on the 19th floor and had sufficient space — around 750 square feet — as well as a balcony.

The bedroom was large enough for a queen- or even a king-size bed and had two closets. The place also had closets for coats, linen and storage. Ms. Kellogg went to see it first thing the next morning.

East 96th A 750-square-foot apartment in an elevator building had four closets, and a bedroom large enough to pass muster.

Hiroko Masuike / The New York Times

“I was starting to lay out the furniture in my head,” she said, “and it seemed every piece of furniture had a place to go.”

They weren’t the only ones interested. “I e-mailed the broker all 17 pieces of documentation he needed,” Mr. Kroll said. Their application was the first one in.

The couple signed a two-year lease and arrived in the fall, paying a broker fee of a month’s rent.

There have been only a few hitches. An adjacent alley funnels up sound from busy 96th Street. Ms. Kellogg didn’t realize she would be able to hear the elevator ding. At night, she drowns it out with a fan.

The biggest issue was “getting Matt’s stuff under control,” Ms. Kellogg said. They donated bags upon bags of clothing to Goodwill.

“When we moved in,” she said, “I noticed that things were filling up very quickly. Every closet that I opened was filled to the max, and it was frustrating me because I don’t want the entire apartment to be filled with just Matt’s belongings. I want us to have space where we can buy things together that we want. Once everything was organized, I was able to relax a bit, and since then it’s been easy.”

Mr. Kroll rented a CubeSmart storage locker. “But we have storage lockers in our building,” he said, “and we are second on the wait list.”